Epoxy compounds have been used as raw materials in various fields such as resins, coatings, medicines, agricultural chemicals, and electronic materials, and there are several methods of producing the epoxy compounds. Of these, the method which has been most generally carried out is a method involving reacting epichlorohydrin or the like with alcohols (for example, see Patent Document 1). These epoxy compounds contain impurities, but are cheap and suitable for mass production, and thus are used in many fields. However, not all of the halogen atoms derived from the raw material can be removed from these epoxy compounds, so from the viewpoint of the dioxin problem or the like, an epoxy compound which does not have a halogen atom has been sought.
In addition, as another method, there is a method involving using peroxide compounds such as hydrogen peroxide and peracetic acid or the like (for example, see Patent Documents 2 and 3). When these oxidizing agents are used, the incorporation of a halogen atom can be avoided, but the yield is poor in all cases, and in particular, there has been a problem with the a large amount of glycols being generated as by-products.    Patent Document 1: JP 05-017463 A    Patent Document 2: JP 05-213919 A    Patent Document 3: JP 06-172335 A